Tyrone Power, starring in the name role of Columbia's Technicolor, Cinemascope The Eddy Duchin Story, which opens at the Radio city Music Hall Thursday ,was, he declares, a haunted man while the picture was in work—haunted by pianos. "Everywhere I went," he said in a recent interview, "I saw pianos or dummy keyboards. There was one at home, on in my dressing-room, one in the portable dressing on stage and always three or four on the sets. My practicing under the instruction of Nat Brandywynne, who is addition to being a famous band-leader, is a fine pianist and spent six years in Duchin's orchestra, went on for three months, averaging six to seven hours a day. At first it was just hard work; then, after a time, it came easily and I really enjoyed it.

Tough Chore

The star declares that if he had an inkling of the job that confronted him in the Duchin Story role he might never have had the courage to attempt it.

"When producer Jerry Wald and director George Sidney talked to me about playing the part," he says, "I was delighted with the tender, romantic story that is still fresh in our minds. I felt a special closeness to the subject because I knew Duchin and visited him in the New York Memorial Hospital only a few days before he died in 1951." (Incidentally, producer Wald and director Sidney share this feeling because both have personal memories of the pianist.)

Dummy Piano Virtuoso

"So," continued Power, "I was eager to do the picture. We talked about reproducing Eddy's unique personal style-they called him the man who played with his heart, you know-with Carmen Cavallaro making the actual recordings for the picture. And, of course, I realized that my fingering had to be perfect. It wasn't just a matter of sitting down and making vague motions. The script called for 20 numbers, among them full orchestral renditions of 'Brazil' and "Dizzy Fingers," in all of which I was to simulate every facet of technique that made Duchin outstanding as an artist. And we all knew that if I struck so much as one false note, some expert in the audience would know it. So I practiced with a dummy keyboard with earphones attached to a playback machine, hammering away until I was what you might call a dummy-piano virtuoso."

Along with his piano chores Power had a complex and taxing role in Duchin, highly contrasted to his last of Columbia—the Irish physical instructor, Sgt. Marty Maher in The Long Gray Line. The story brings Duchin to New York as an unknown youngster from Boston, carries him through his initial popularity at the smart Central Park Casino to eminence and adulation as a country-wide celebrity.

Parallel to the success saga is the love story with his first wife, beautiful socialite Marjorie Oelrichs (played by Kim Novak, who start opposite Power) her tragic death after childbirth and the long period of desolation and bitterness during which Duchin was parted from his son, Peter, (Rex Thompson). Service In the Navy during world War II is followed by his reunion with Peter, now ten, and marriage to his second wife, Chiquita—a part played by green-eyed Australian newcomer Victoria Shaw.

Romantic Story

Piano playing was an important part of The Eddy Duchin Story, but the emotional and romantic demand so the story made the picture one of the most colorful and challenging this star has had in his stage and film career.

Rex Thompson and James Whitmore are featured in The Duchin Story with Shepperd Sturdwick. The story is by Leo Katcher and the screen play by Samuel Taylor.

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